Elections are in Japan's forecast for this year -- nationwide local elections in April, the contest for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency in October and perhaps a general election for the House of Representative sometime in between -- with a strong possibility of political turbulence along the way.
After the Diet opened its ordinary session late last month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi delivered a policy speech on Jan. 31 that lacked punch and fell short of public expectations. Newspaper articles and editorials called the speech "backward-looking," asserting that it "lacked concrete measures" in both domestic and international affairs and that Koizumi's government was heading downhill.
In stark contrast, the Democratic Party of Japan under Naoto Kan appears to have regained popularity following the fiasco of a leadership election late last year. In debates at plenary sessions and before the Lower House Budget Committee, the party's secretary general, Katsuya Okada, and younger lawmakers such as Seishi Matsubara, Yukio Edano and Kazuhiro Haraguchi stood up one after the other to interrogate Koizumi and his ministers.